Your favorite program on Television

13 Feb 2017—Film Essays

I choose the comedy-drama Desperate Housewives. (2004) It is a contemporary take on the fairytale "Happily Ever After" where the woman expects to have a happy life with her husband after the wedding. Desperate Housewives is said to have saved television from reality shows by bringing back well-written original writing. It is the first written television show in a long time that does not only relay on editing video to create a story. It is a television show with a written plot, characters, sub-plots, and plot points written by actual writers.

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Desperate Housewives is a primetime show derived from the soaps. It is a darkly comic look of life in Suburbia where the secret life of housewives are not what it seems. The series begins with Mary Alice Young (Played by Brenda Strong) who leaves her so called perfect house in the suburbs and kills herself. Brenda Strong then introduces her friends, family and neighbors, and comments on them from her P.O.V. in heaven.

Mary Alice's circle of friends in fictional Wisteria Lane in the suburban town of Fairview is located in fictional Falcon State. Wisteria Lane consists of Susan Mayer (Portrayed by Teri Hatcher). She is a single mom, divorcee who goes through extraordinary obstacles to find love. Lynette Scavo (portrayed by Felicity Hoffman) is a woman who struggles trying to balance the complications of family and work. Bree Van De Kamp (portrayed by Marcia Cross) seems perfect. She is a perfect cook, housekeeper, dresser and votes Republican. She is the perfect woman who is secretly battling widowhood, vengeful children, and alcoholism.

Gabrielle Solis (portrayed by Eva Longoria) is another of Mary Alice's Friends she has left behind. She is an ex-model who has received everything she wanted in life. She has a rich husband, a huge house, everything she could ever wish for except a happy marriage. Gabrielle and Carlos (portrayed by Ricardo Antonio Chavira) are estranged, both having an affair with different people.Edie Britt (Portrayed by Nicolette Sheridan) is the neighborhoods serial divorcee. She is a beautiful free spirit and works as a real estate agent at Wisteria Lane. Her scandalous love life has everyone in the neighborhood talking.

The men at Wisteria Lane are just as interesting and scandalous. There is Mike Delfino (Portrayed by James Denton) is the neighborhood plumber. Mike is having an on again off again affair with Susan. Tom Lynette's husband (Portrayed by Doug Savant) who is keeping his own secrets. Gabrielle's estranged husband Carlos. Bree's husband Orson Hodge (Portrayed by Kyle MacLachlan).The new love interest for Susan, is the charming Ian Kavanaugh (Portrayed by Dougray Scott). And lastly, Edie's 17-year-old nephew, whose talent is to stir up trouble like her infamous aunt Edie.

The narrator of the show Mary Alice, tells her audience she can see much more dead than she did alive. She promises to expose all the delicious mysteries hiding behind her neighbors locked doors in this utopian American suburb.Desperate Housewives was created by Mark Cherry and first aired on October 3, 2004. It is considered a Soap Opera drama. Desperate Housewives was inspired by Twin Peaks, the film American Beauty, and Sex and the City.

The positive feature about Desperate Housewives is that it does for housewives what Sex and the City did for single woman by exposing the true life of the "Suburban housewife's Happily Ever After."It is a well-written television show with a plot, plot twists, plot points, and interesting characters. This is a rarity in a time when television is inundated with reality shows. It is said that Desperate Housewives as well as other narrative written shows have killed all the reality shows. They are testament of people wanting high quality television shows with a great plot, and intriguing characters they can root for or jeer.

The characters of Desperate Housewives are very interesting and easy to root for. The character of Susan is every divorced single mother, which every woman can relate to. Lynette is a woman who every woman can relate to juggling work as well as family. Bree is a character to whom every woman would like to be and every man would like to have.

She is the ideal woman. She keeps a clean house, always looks beautiful, a great cook, and loves her family. Gabrielle is the Princess who is living unhappily ever after with her prince who is cheating and who she cheats on. Edie is the woman everyone knows in the neighborhood. She is the neighborhood tramp who is rumored to have slept with everyone in the neighborhood.She is the fodder of the gossip mill that keeps the neighborhood talking. And Mary Alice is the audience narrating the truths behind Wisteria Lane.

Another thing that makes the show quality is the production value. The town of Wisteria Lane is immaculate. It is a prestige neighborhood harboring these uglylittle secrets of adultery, murder, suicide, crime and sexual escapades. The cleanliness of the town is ironic compared to all its secrets. Not only is the town immaculate, the woman of Wisteria are immaculate as well. They all beautiful, with beautiful children and a seemingly beautiful happy life, on the outside.

The writing of Desperate Housewives is exemplary. It has won the Golden Globes, The Primetime Emmy Awards, The Screen Actors Awards and deserves each one. The writing has biting wit that makes it irresistible and addicting. I have been watching the show since its beginning in 2005.

The negative aspects of the show is that is too short and I think it has become much too bloody. Last year's finale when a disgruntled woman walks into the supermarket and fires a gun, shooting half the cast was a little too much for me. I felt as if they became lazy, settling for the shock value of unnecessary violence rather than relying on their quality writing. It is shame that they had sank that low and I was disappointed.

I also believe this years writing has disconnected with the stories of real woman and have become too much of a soap opera which no woman can relate. This is why the ratings have slipped from the strong numbers they gained in the first season. However, this drop has not kept me from watching the show. I still watch to see what these beautiful women of Wisteria Lane will do next.